Sauvie Island with Leo to Fly Mavic

Today I headed out to sauvie Island with Leo and the camera to practice some shots and fly the Mavic Pro around a bit for practice.  It was a beautiful fall day and it had been a while since I really got Leo out of the house.  I’d been unemployed for nearly a month as well.  To my horror it cost $10 for the parking pass for the Island for the day.  This certainly seemed like twice what I had paid last time.  A year pass was $30 but only good for the calendar year so why would anyone ever buy one in November.  I love coming here for the bird life but will make sure to buy a year pass in January instead.  

I found a great place to pull off the road and fly the Mavic above some geese.  Leo joined me at the top of the hill but as soon as I got the drone out he ran away from it.  Apparently, the drone emits a very high pitch noise that is bothersome to dogs and this was certainly evident in his behavior.  I only had 20 minutes of battery life anyway so I didn’t mind putting him in the truck for a bit while I flew.  

Just when I was finishing up my first flight, testing out some camera settings, a car with an elderly couple pulled in and they began walking up the hill.  Being a considerate pilot I began to pack up the platform but when they got to the top of the hill they were super curious about it so I took it back out for a flight to show them how it all worked, impressing them greatly with the technology.  

Leo and I then headed out deeper into the island to head to a beach and relax in the sun for a while.  We got some great shots of the volcanoes around us and flock after flock of geese flying by overhead.  We watched from a log as small planes flew overhead and boats passed us on the river kicking up big wakes that scared Leo a little bit as they broke on the shore near us.  Once we had our fill of sitting in the sun we headed home, spotting a big red-tailed hawk on a telephone pole on our way out, the only raptor we saw the entire day.  I’ll have to go back once I get more batteries and can have more flight time with the drone.